Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Your summer English exam will be comprised of two sections and will last 80 minutes.
Section A: Animal Farm Question
Section B: Discursive Writing
[40 minutes]
[40 minutes]
You should make sure all questions are answered fully.
Section A: Animal Farm
You will be asked a question about the pigs in Chapter
8 in Animal Farm.
To help prepare for this section in advance of the exam
you should:
• Bullet point the key events in this chapter
• Learn the commandments and how they were
changed by the pigs
• Write ten bullet points on what you have learned about the pigs' behaviour
on Animal Farm in chapters 1-8
• Make a list of quotes from chapter 8 for the pigs and what we learn about
them
To be successful in this section you should:
•
•
•
•
•
Demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of the chapter
Use quotes from the chapter to support your answer
Explain the points you are making
Paragraph your work, using topic sentences at the beginning of each one
Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Putting quotes into sentences
When you are explaining your answer in this section you should use P.E.E.
and in Year 10 your teacher expects you to do that in a more sophisticated
way.
Remember to use different words in your point, evidence and explanation
and integrate the quotes naturally into your sentences. For example:
Point: Napoleon becomes more controlling by ending Sunday morning
meetings without taking a vote on it. ��
Evidence: He also announces that all questions relating to the farm would be
'settled by a special committee of pigs, presided over by himself.' The
animals would be told the decisions. Similarly there would be no more
debates and the animals would only assemble to 'receive their orders for the
week' and salute the flag which means that they are showing obedience. ��
These points are integrated really well into the flow of the sentences and are
well chosen to support the point.
Explanation: Therefore through reducing the amount of power that the other
animals have and increasing and increasing his own, Napoleon has become
more manipulative.��
The pupil concludes by using a different word for 'controlling' and explains
the link to the examples they have given.
Not:
Point: Napoleon becomes more controlling by ending Sunday morning
meetings without taking a vote on it. ��
Evidence: "the animals would receive their orders for the week." ��
The quote isn't integrated into the sentence and is set out on it's own, not
related in a clear way to the previous statement.
Explanation: By telling the animals their orders for the week, and by ending
Sunday morning meetings Napoleon is shown to be more controlling.��
This simply reuses the words from the point and the quote and doesn't
explain the links between them
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Try the following example question based on Chapter Five to help you practice and
look closely at the exemplar answer and teacher comments to show you how to set
out your work.
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Section A
Animal Farm
(25 marks)
1) Show how Napoleon becomes more controlling in Chapter 5.
Success Criteria:
• Demonstrate good knowledge and understanding of the chapter
• Use quotes from the chapter to support your answer
• Explain the points you are making
• Paragraph your work
• Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation
• Use topic sentences
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Model Answer: Show how Napoleon becomes more controlling in Chapter 5.
Napoleon becomes more controlling in Chapter 5 in his disagreements with Snowball. In the text it states
that 'These two disagreed at every point where disagreement was possible.' In the debates over things like
the windmill, Snowball is more persuasive in his speeches but Napoleon 'was better at canvassing support
for himself in between times'. Snowball spent time studying plans and coming up with ideas for how to
improve the farm but 'Napoleon produced no schemes of his own.' Snowball impressed the animals with his
intelligence, especially when planning the windmill, but Napoleon pretended that he was against the scheme
as he 'urinated over the plans and walked out.' However before he did this he 'looked closely at every
detail... Out of the corner of his eye.' Which shows he is controlling and manipulative as he plans to use
them later.
Napoleon is more controlling in the way that he manipulates and uses the animals. He trains the sheep to
bleat 'Four legs good, two legs bad' at crucial moments in Snowball's speeches'. He also plays on their
fears and says that of they follow Snowball they will 'starve to death.' This shows that he is trying to
control how the animals vote and what they think by confusing them and scaring them.
Napoleon becomes more controlling in Chapter 5 when he stops the animals being able to vote for Snowball
by scaring him off the farm using the dogs. He has trained the dogs in private which was an underhand thing
to do and shows he was planning to something like this for a long time. The animals are 'silent and
terrified' after this happens and the fact that the dogs 'wagged their tails to him', the way they had to Mr.
Jones, shows he is becoming more like a human and therefore more controlling.
Napoleon becomes more controlling by ending Sunday morning meetings without taking a vote on it. He
also announces that all questions relating to the farm would be 'settled by a special committee of pigs,
presided over by himself.' The animals would be told the decisions. Similarly there would be no more
debates and the animals would only assemble to 'receive their orders for the week' and salute the flag which
means that they are showing obedience. In this way Napoleon has become more manipulative.
Finally, Napoleon has become more controlling through using Squealer to explain things to the animals.
Squealer is extremely clever and can twist facts to convince the animals that things are true. Squealer
explains to the animals that Napoleon didn't want to lead but was doing them a favour in doing so. He also
calls Snowball 'a criminal.' This twisting of the truth shows Napoleon to be very controlling. Also, when
Napoleon decides that he wants to build the windmill that Snowball designed, Squealer said that Napoleon
had in fact created it and his drawings had 'been stolen from among Napoleon's papers.' These lies show
that Napoleon wants to convince the animals that he is cleverer and more tactical than he really is, which is
very manipulative. Squealer repeats things so that the animals remember it and they are not clever enough
to challenge it, therefore they eventually believe Napoleon's lies. Also the dogs growl 'so threateningly'
when Napoleon or Snowball speak that the animals are scared into believing them. This adverb shows that
the dogs are being used by Napoleon to intimidate and therefore control the other animals.
Teacher comments:
A fantastic response to the question - well done! Quotes are well selected and integrated well into
your sentences. Good use of topics sentences at the beginning of every paragraph to show the reader
that you are focused on the question. Point, evidence and explanation are done in a fluent and
natural way to keep the sense and meaning of your answer clear. Paragraphing, spelling, grammar
and punctuation are all accurate.
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Section B: Discursive Writing
In this section you will be asked to respond to a statement and show both
sides of the argument.
In advance of the exam you should:
• Learn the discourse markers to use in your argument
• Revise the rhetorical devices and include some of them in your essay
• Do a timed practice essay to help you prepare for the unseen nature of this
section
To be successful in this section you should:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Make a list of all the arguments 'for' and 'against' before you begin writing
Use an introduction, section 'for', section 'against' and conclusion
Use a high level of language
Use a variety of discourse markers
Use some rhetorical devices to interest and engage the reader
Use the opinions of others to support your arguments
Use some of the information given to you on the exam paper to help you make your
arguments 'for' and 'against'
• Give your informed personal opinion in the conclusion based on your arguments
Discourse markers
Words that introduce:
Words that form the opposing
argument or disagree:
Firstly
Primarily
In the first place
Initially
In contrast
Alternatively
On the other hand
Words that compare or
continue an argument:
Moreover
Similarly
Furthermore
In addition
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Rhetorical devices for discursive writing:
Discursive writing is not as forceful as persuasive writing but you should still
present both sides of the argument in a convincing and assured way. To help
you do this you can use:
• Facts
• Personal anecdotes
• Real life examples
• Expert opinions
• Rhetorical questions
• The rule of three
• Decisive language such as 'clearly', 'undoubtedly', 'it is evident that', 'this
proves that'
In conclusion...
To write a successful conclusion in discursive writing you should show that
you have considered all the arguments and give your informed personal
opinion. You could also include personal experience or other reasons why
you agree / disagree with the stimulus statement
Complete the practice question below in 40 minutes to practice for your
exam.
• Plan your ideas before you write
• Check the success criteria to make sure you have structured it properly,
included the right information and used the correct tone and language.
Ballymena Academy, 2015
Summer Exam Year 10
Revision Checklist English
Section B
Discursive Writing
(25 marks)
2) 'Mobile phones should be banned in schools.'
Write a discursive essay in response to the above statement which addresses
both sides of the argument.
Success Criteria:
• Use an introduction, section 'for', section 'against' and conclusion
• Use a high level of language
• Use a variety of discourse markers
• Use some rhetorical devices to interest and engage the reader
• Use the opinions of others to support your arguments
You can use some of the information below as part of your arguments 'for'
and 'against'
For
• "Pupils' revision is completely disrupted by mobile phones. They are
playing '8 Ball Pool', 'Zig Zag' and 'Crossy Road' in the library instead of
revising for G.C.S.E.s" (R. Hayes, English teacher.)
• A recent survey shows that 68% of bullying complaints in school are about
cyber bullying incidents.
Against
• "I use my phone in school to check spelling and to look up facts on Google
to help with my work." (Samantha, age 15)
• "My mum works far away and I need to keep in touch with her throughout
the day about arrangements for picking up my younger siblings." (Tom,
age 16)
Ballymena Academy, 2015